William D. Coplin of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and Marcelle Haddix of the School of Education have received 2017 Judith Greenberg Seinfeld Scholar awards in recognition of their outstanding work as scholars and teachers. Endowed by alumna and University Trustee Judith Greenberg Seinfeld ’56, the awards recognize faculty members who have shown a passion for excellence and exceptional creativity and originality in an academic or artistic field or endeavor. The awards are intended to recognize “those who have made an outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world, who have added to human values and to ending human abuse anywhere in the world.”
Haddix joined the School of Education faculty in 2008, and since that time has developed a distinctive focus on and expertise in youth literacies, particularly in the urban context, and the preparation of teachers for youth in urban schools. In 2009, she created the Writing Our Lives project to provide Syracuse area youth with creative opportunities to write, create, produce and share their stories. The program takes multiple formats, including after-school writing programs, summer writing institutes, book clubs, digital composing programs, theatrical performances and an annual youth writing conference.
In conjunction with the Community Folk Arts Center in Syracuse, she also created the program Dark Girls: Celebration of Black Girlhood in 2013 to support literacy, identity, self-esteem and social development of adolescent girls of color.
Haddix also has pursued research and activities designed to better prepare future teachers of urban youth. She has engaged undergraduate and graduate students in both the Writing Our Lives and Dark Girls projects, and facilitated development of TEACHSyracuse programs at three local high schools to help encourage high school students to explore the field of teaching. Haddix has received several national early-career awards and recognitions, and in 2011, she earned a Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Teaching Recognition Award from Syracuse University.
Haddix is a core faculty member in the Renée Crown University Honors Program, an affiliated faculty member in women’s and gender studies, a member of the Democratizing Knowledge core team and a courtesy faculty appointee in the cultural foundations of education program. She authored the book “Cultivating Racial and Linguistic Diversity in Literacy Teacher Education: Teachers Like Me” and currently serves as vice president of the Literacy Research Association.
The Judith Greenberg Seinfeld Scholar Award is among many lasting gifts Seinfeld has created for Syracuse University over the years. Faculty recipients are nominated by academic deans, and awardees receive a restriction-free grant of $10,000 to encourage them in their continued outstanding performance.